15 great holiday gifts for the tech enthusiast on your list

Tools

Digits, little dots made of conductive silicone and metal pins, attach to gloves, enabling touch-screen device users to continue tapping in the freezing cold. Packages of four are available at quirky.com and other retailers.

Here are a few suggestions for those who love gadgets — and isn’t that everyone?

Guitar input $99 to $199Apogee Jam and MiC are the first studio-quality guitar interfaces for GarageBand, Logic and MainStage. Pocket-sized, with a plug-and-play interface, Apogee Jam is a great gift for the music-maker, as is the MiC, a high-quality microphone that also interfaces with iPads, iPhones and Macs. Get yours at Guitar Center, 1645 Van Ness Ave., S.F., (415) 409-0350, www.apogeedigital.com

2 Laser chase toy $29.95For pets needing a workout, this gadget from Hammacher Schlemmer, which operates at four speeds, sends a darting single-beam laser around the room in oscillating, unpredictable, stop-and-start patterns, inciting a perpetual game of chase. A similar device that emits two beams also is available. www.hammacher.com

Subwoofer $699Sonos’ wireless subwoofer brings heart-pounding, cinematic sound into the living room without the tangle of wires. Sophisticated engineering eliminates cabinet and furniture rattling, and makes it stashable under the sofa. Get yours at Best Buy, 1717 Harrison St., S.F., (415) 626-9682, www.sonos.com

Streaming player $49.99The Roku LT is a magical gadget that adds Hulu, Netflix and custom channels to any television, with a streamlined interface and easy setup. Get yours at shop.roku.com

Duck speaker $29.99Perfect for the bathtub, the iDuck is a waterproof, floating speaker that allows listeners to play songs from MP3 players without fear of electrocution. The egg is the dock for any MP3 device with a 3.5 mm microphone jack; the iDuck also plays FM radio. Get yours at www.thinkgeek.com.

Tabletop radio $160Crosley Ranchero’s sleek AM-FM radio features a clean look with vintage flair and an acoustically tuned and ported speaker enclosure. It also charges and plays iPhones and iPods. Get yours at www.epicrecrooms.com.

Action video cameras $199-$299Sony’s Action Cam AS10 and AS15 are tiny and lightweight, allowing photographers to capture high-definition, gravity-defying action. The AS15 model also offers Wi-Fi connectivity, so users can immediately upload videos to the Web. Get yours at www.store.sony.com.

Power cord reel $279 Winner of a Popular Mechanics Editors’ Choice Award, the RoboReel is an extension and power cord reel “with a brain.” Its microprocessor ensures nice and neat retraction at the touch of a button. It comes with a warranty covering four years or 4,000 winds (whichever comes first). Get yours at www.roboreel.com.

Portable audio system $199The Geneva Sound System Model XS is billed as the world’s first portable hi-fi sound system (with woofer). It comes in a sleek, 1960s-style, folding mesh case and has an LED clock that lights up, an integrated FM tuner, 3.5mm audio input and stereo Bluetooth playback, which allows music to stream wirelessly from any Bluetooth device as well as iPads, iPhones and tablets. Get yours at www.crutchfield.com.

Megapixel digital camera $499.99It’s hard not to love the Fujifilm XF1. The compact point and shoot — packed inside a sturdy but lightweight aluminum case with a faux-leather exterior — has 12 megapixels, 4X zoom, an advanced filter and high-tech anti-blur mechanisms. The f-1.8 lens ensures high-quality photos with minimum noise, unusual for a compact. Get yours at Best Buy, 1717 Harrison St., S.F.

Darth Vader USB Hub $65A hub featuring the beloved “Star Wars” character — which holds four 2.0 USB ports — connects scanners, cameras, computers, phones and computers to the dark side and is officially licensed as a Lucasfilm collectible. Get yours at www.toysrus.com

Sport earphones $29.99MEElectronics’ Sport Fi M6 earphones have a secure, over-ear fit that prevents slippage and a noise-isolating in-ear design. Perfect for athletes of all types, the earbuds come in a package that includes six tips of different sizes for maximum comfort. Get yours at www.meelec.com

Conductive glove pins $12Digits, little dots made of conductive silicone and metal pins, attach to gloves, enabling touch-screen device users to continue tapping in the freezing cold. Packages of four are available at quirky.com and other retailers. Get yours at www.quirky.com

Modernist Cuisine at Home $150 to $180The tome is a downsized, “domestic” version of the $625, six-volume restaurant set by laboratory chefs and scientists Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Maxime Bilet, whose methods of modernist cooking emphasize pure flavors, precise execution, and the use of scientific understanding to advance the art of cooking. Get yours at Omnivore Books, 3885 Caesar Chavez St., S.F., (415) 282-4712, www.omnivorebooks.com

Curve BT iDock $120French designer David Turpin’s award-winning dock can charge an iPhone and connect to two Bluetooth devices simultaneously. Use the wireless handset to use Skype or Google Talk while the phone charges. Get yours at SFMOMA Museum Store, 151 Third St., S.F., (415) 357-4000, www.sfmoma.org